“To a man, the greatest blessing is individual liberty. To a dog, it is the last word in despair.” – William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943)

I honestly don’t hold a lot of hope in this upcoming presidential election. I have a sinking feeling that Obama is going to win. Perhaps not by the landslide he hopes, but a miss is as good as a mile (as they say), so we’re faced with the prospect of “change” being forced on us in the next four years whether we like it or not.

How could this happen? How did America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, get to this point? It’s because we have become dogs. We sit on command. We stay. We roll over. We beg. Oh boy do we beg.

Obama’s platform – and yes, to a lesser extent McCain’s – is based in socialism, pure and simple. Our wealth will be spread around, our housing and medical care will be taken out of the private sector and nationalized, thus becoming (ahem) “free.” Our right to bear arms will be severely infringed, and in all other respects our constitutionally guaranteed American rights will go to hell in a handbasket.

Throughout history, people have spent lifetimes trying to break free from the chains of bondage. Here in the U.S., for the first time in the course of human events, our Founding Fathers achieved that concept – first through the Declaration of Independence, later supplemented with the 13th Amendment. And now, 232 years later, we are happily and voluntarily fettering ourselves with chains much thicker, heavier and oppressive than England ever imposed upon us in the height of King George’s insanity.

All because we’ve become dogs. We roll over in submission for someone to scratch our bellies. We cower when we’re smacked with a newspaper. We beg for treats. Our world implodes when our masters are angry with us.

We have lost the ability and, apparently, the interest in maintaining our independence. Cherished concepts such as personal liberty, individual responsibility, success through hard work, and other high and admirable standards are no longer desired. If this is truly the case, we are doomed as a nation.

Now we watch as the U.S. economy tanks, due in large part to government intervention in private-market banking. This offers an unprecedented opportunity for the government cavalry to come sweeping in to save the day, seizing private assets and businesses left and right and sinking us further into socialism and away from free-market capitalism.

Things can only go downhill from here.

If Barack Obama gets in as president, I see one of two things happening.

America will sink into socialism so fast we won’t know what hit us. Our constitutionally guaranteed rights will disappear, our taxes will skyrocket, and our lives will become straightjackets. We will accept this with submissive dog-like apathy and descend into a canine state of licking our master’s hands. Or

America will sink into socialism so fast we won’t know what hit us. Our constitutionally guaranteed rights will disappear, our taxes will skyrocket, and our lives will become straightjackets. But when things get bad enough, Americans will recall our roots. We will rise up and demand a return of limited government as put forth by the Founding Fathers.

Which scenario do you honestly think will happen? I suspect it will be No. 1. That’s how bad we’ve become. Woof woof.

The ironic thing is I’m not so certain that McCain’s march toward socialism will be much different than Obama’s. Republicans traditionally take a slower road toward bigger government than Democrats, but it’s still the same road.

So when did we stop being We the People and start becoming We the Sheeple?

I will tell you how and why we have come to the brink of socialism in this country: education. Our public schools, with the blessings of government officials, have been droning on about the evils of capitalism and the superiority of socialism for decades. The media echo this chant, so children have grown into adults knowing no other philosophy. Capitalism is bad. Socialism is good. Woof woof.

The fact of human nature is people are lazy. If you take away the incentive to achieve anything because you’re providing it for “free,” watch how they fall into an indifferent, drone-like status quo. People will come to expect everything to be handed to them on a government platter. Woof wo … er, you know the rest.

The following quote is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813), a Scottish-born lawyer and writer. See if you think this sounds eerily familiar:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage.”

I think we’re just about ready to fulfill the last line of this prediction, don’t you?

Brace yourselves, folks. We’re in for a bumpy ride. Better learn how to roll over and play dead.

Or – here’s a concept – we could stop being dogs. Maybe it’s time to rise from four feet to two. Rather than letting the government pat us condescendingly on the head and give us treats, maybe it’s time to bite the hand that feeds us.